IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



might be adopted with advantage, using the requisite imple- 

 ments and employing buffaloes. But it would, I think, be vain 

 to expect in Borneo the grand agricultural results which are obtained 

 in Java, where the soil is so different. In Borneo fertility is in 

 very great measure due to the humus accumulated in the forests, 

 and when this is used up, or carried away by rain or floods, the soil 

 which is left could scarcely be productive unless it were properly 

 worked and manured. It is therefore doubtful if it would suffice 

 to support a large and dense population, living exclusively or 

 mostly on the produce of the land, and in a very limited degree 

 on the results of its own industry. On the other hand, in Java the 

 continual decomposition of lavas and volcanic rocks under the 

 constant influence of a hot and moist climate yields a soil of in- 

 exhaustible fertility, capable of supporting a very large population 

 even if practising only primitive methods of agriculture. The 

 true reason of the scanty population of Borneo may probably 

 be looked for in the above-mentioned facts. Had the mountains 

 of Borneo been volcanic, I think there can be little doubt that it 

 would have been from the remotest times quite as populous as 

 Java, for it lies in a position of easv access to civilised peoples 

 migrating from Continental Asia. 1 



With the system of rice-cultivation now practised in Borneo, 

 any extension would lead to a corresponding destruction of forests, 

 and thus lessen those forest products which at present certainly 

 form one of the main resources of the country. A glance at the 

 most populous and fertile countries near Borneo will show that 

 these are the islands which form the volcanic chain around it, 

 the denser population being in the districts where the volcanoes 

 are situated. This is the case, not only in Java, but also in Sumatra, 

 Celebes, the Philippines, and the Moluccas. Ceram, on the contrary, 

 which stands with respect to the nearest volcanic islands in rela- 

 tively the same position as Borneo does farther to the west, has a 

 scanty population, and is almost entirely covered with forest. 



The reasons here adduced to explain the relative agricultural 

 poverty of Borneo explain also the non-success of the various 

 attempts which have been made to cultivate the sugar-cane, 

 coffee, tobacco, indigo, and other tropical products. I do not mean 

 to say that these do not give any results in Borneo, but that their 



1 It is doubtful whether this can be looked upon as the sole reason of the 

 undoubtedly small population of Borneo. The natives doubtless use the land 

 recklessly because vast areas of unworked soil lie at their very door, and the 

 absence of the domestic animals is against manuring. But so prolific is 

 nature in the untouched soil that the inhabitants of six crowded huts on the 

 Kinabatangan have been known to draw their entire subsistence, day after 

 day, from a little plot under two acres in extent (v. Stanford's Compendium, 

 Australasia, vol. ii., p. 242). — [Ed.]. 



368 



